Donald “Drawbertson” Shows How to Be a Popular Art Star Without a Gallery

The Donald Robertson juggernaut keeps on steaming along, growing in popularity and reach. Since we last saw Robertson living in the New York suburbs and commuting to his creative director job at Estee Lauder, posting his art on Instagram and selling through an online service, the artist has moved to the West Coast and launched his own website to sell his art.

“I failed Life Drawing for making all the people longer and skinnier than they were,” he says. “Now it’s the secret to my success.” In the 80s, Robertson helped launch MAC cosmetics, and he worked at several magazines in New York before landing his current job as roving creative director at Estée Lauder. But he never stopped drawing. Robertson’s aesthetic is homemade, a little messy, and collage-like, and that approach extends to his commerce: anyone can buy his work—which starts at $375 for a print and can go to more than $12,500 for a painting—online. “I’m trying to do stuff that’s less expensive,” he says. He believes that art shouldn’t be so rarefied, nor should fashion. How else to interpret a toilet-paper roller tricked out with the Louis Vuitton logo? “Fashion people are essentially children,” he says, laughing. “And the ones who are good are the ones who remain child-like the longest.”